Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi Microcomputer System, Ltd.

Hisaharu Takeuchi

Isamu Kurokawa

Akira Deguchi

Takao Sato

Hisashi Takamatsu

Yasutomo Yamamoto

Akira Kurano

Mamoru Tohchi

Kazuyoshi Serizawa

Norio Shimozono

Hisao Homma

Masanori Araki

Masatoshi Baba

Yuji Sueoka

Mikio Fukuoka

Eiju Katsuragi

Masaru Tsukada

Masahiro Kawaguchi

Junichi Muto

Yoshiro Shiroyanagi

Akira Yamamoto

Yoshiaki Eguchi

Takao Satoh

Shintaro Inoue

Yutaka Takata

Kohei Tatara

Shinichi Hiramatsu

Hiroaki Nakanishi

Masahiro Nakayama

Ai Satoyama

Noboru Morishita

Ikuo Kawaguchi

Kazue Jindo

Yoshiaki Muto

Kazuhiro Murata

Yukihisa Kashima

Hisayoshi Kawabata

Hiroshi Arakawa

Yoshiki Kano

Kenji Yamagami

Shigeo Homma

Katsunori Nakamura

Yasuo Inoue

Haruaki Watanabe

Yoshihiro Uchiyama

Hajime Ikeda

Hidetoshi Sakaki

Masami Maeda

Akihiro Mori

Yoshiko Matsumoto

Noboru Furuumi

Shuji Sugimoto

Kei Sato

Misako Tamura

Kenichi Sawa

Hiroshi Ichinomiya

Miyuki Yasuda

Haruki Takei

Taku Adachi

Akihiro' Mori

Jyunichi Muto

Satoshi Numakura

Keisuke Sakamoto

Norio Hamada

Hiroaki Onuma

A storage apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention is configured to perform a deduplication process on write data from a host. For the deduplication process, the storage apparatus calculates a feature value of write data, and records, in a management region, metadata that is a set of the feature value of the write data and information on a storage position of the write data. However, to prevent the amount of metadata stored in the management region from increasing, if write data meets a predetermined condition, the storage apparatus does not perform the deduplication process, and suppresses creation of metadata of the write data.

Storage apparatus

Proposed are a storage apparatus and a control method thereof capable of improving the response performance to a read access of various access patterns. When data to be read is not retained in a data buffer memory, upon staging the data to be read, a processor performs sequential learning of respectively observing an access pattern in units of blocks of a predetermined size and an access pattern in units of slots configured from a plurality of the blocks regarding an access pattern of the read access from the host apparatus, and expands a data range to be staged as needed based on a learning result of the sequential learning.

Storage apparatus and control method thereof

A storage apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention includes one or more storage devices and a storage controller. The storage controller separates an area of the storage device into an overwrite storage area and an append write storage area and manages the areas, and moves data between the overwrite storage area and the append write storage area. For example, less frequently updated data among write data from a host is moved to the append write storage area from the overwrite storage area. In a state where update data directed to the data stored in the append write storage area is received from a host, the storage controller compresses the update data and then performs append write of the compressed update data to the append write storage area.

The storage system includes a plurality of storage devices. A storage controller is configured to manage a plurality of pages in a pool provided by at least one of the plurality of storage devices, to provide a virtual storage area to a host by allocating one or more pages from the pool dynamically, in which the virtual storage area is formed with a data area and a control information area. The storage controller is further configured to expand the virtual storage area on a unit basis, where the unit is a set of a given size area of the data area and a given size area of the control information area. In response to a write request from the host, the storage controller is configured to store data into the data area and to store control information for accessing to the data into the control information area.

Each actual page inside a pool is configured from a plurality of actual tracks, and each virtual page inside a virtual volume is configured from a plurality of virtual tracks. A storage control apparatus of a mainframe system has management information that includes information denoting a track in which there exists a user record, which is a record including user data (the data used by a host apparatus of a mainframe system). Based on the management information, a controller identifies an actual page that is configured only from tracks that do not comprise the user record, and cancels the allocation of the identified actual page to the virtual page.

Mainframe storage apparatus that utilizes thin provisioning

A host I/F unit has a management table for managing an MPPK which is in-charge of the control of input/output processing for a storage area of an LDEV, and if a host computer transmits an input/output request for the LDEV, the host I/F unit transfers the input/output request to the MPPK which is in-charge of the input/output processing for the LDEV based on the management table, an MP of the MPPK performs the input/output processing based on the input/output request, and the MP of the MPPK also judges whether the MPPK that is in-charge of the input/output processing for the LDEV is to be changed, and sets the management table so that an MPPK which is different from the MPPK that is in-charge is to be in-charge of the input/output processing for the LDEV.

Storage system

Improvement of read/write access performance with respect to a disk is proposed. A controller manages a first volume format LDEV, in which each distributed user data area and each distributed information area among a plurality of the distributed user data areas for storing a data part and a plurality of the distributed control information area for storing a control information part, are targets that capacity is changed. The controller also manages a second format LDEV, which include a plurality of groups each of which is formed from one distributed user data area and one distributed control information area, and in which each group is a unit that capacity is expanded in a real storage area. The controller converts a data address of the data part belonging to the first volume format LDEV into a data address of a data part of the second volume format LDEV in order to execute input/output processing with respect to the data part, when received an request for access to the data part belonging to the first volume format LDEV.

A plurality of modules () and () comprise a plurality of virtual volumes with which the same volume identification number is associated. A module (), which receives a write request from a computer, searches for an unallocated real area from among a plurality of real areas in the module () rather than from among a plurality of real areas in the other module () if a real area has not been allocated to a write-targeted virtual area in accordance with the write request. The module () allocates the real area retrieved from the module () to the write-targeted virtual area, and writes data according to the write request to this real area.

Storage system comprising plurality of storage system modules

A virtualization system, upon judging that a write operation from a higher-level device is an operation to write in the format of the virtual volume, even when the write position of the write operation is in a virtual area different from a virtual area to which an allocated actual area has been allocated, if there is an unused area in the allocated actual area, writes management information to the unused area according to the write operation, and if there is no unused area in the allocated actual area, newly allocates an unallocated actual area, and writes management information to the newly allocated actual area according to the write operation.

Virtualization system and area allocation control method

Growing community of inventors

Odawara, Japan

Hisaharu Takeuchi